Giants Make It a Bad Night for Wainwright; GIANTS 9, CARDINALS 4

Giants Make It a Bad Night for Wainwright; GIANTS 9, CARDINALS 4

Article excerpt

What was it that former Cardinals manager Tony La Russa used to
say when something normally very reliable went stunningly askew?
"Even Sinatra had to clear this throat," would be La Russa's
standard response.

So it went for righthander Adam Wainwright on Friday night at
Busch Stadium. Wainwright has earned his reputation as one of the
top two or three starters in the National League, but he had nothing
for baseball's best club, the San Francisco Giants.

A two-out, broken-bat, run-scoring single in the first inning by
Michael Morse was an omen. When opposing pitcher Madison Bumgarner
singled to keep the second inning alive, more doom was at hand.
After a run-scoring hit by leadoff man Angel Pagan, Hunter Pence
took a bite out of a Wainwright offering and sent it 447 feet to Big
Mac Land.

Wainwright (8-3) had dug a five-run hole from which the Cardinals
never extricated themselves. The Cardinals' ace ultimately was
knocked out after allowing a season-high seven runs and eight hits
in 4 1/3 innings in a 9-4 San Francisco victory before a paid crowd
of 43,107.

"Every now and then you're going to have a bad day," said
Wainwright. "That's what it comes down to, unfortunately.

"The knee-jerk reaction to this game is that you've wasted a lot
of good starts with this one game. But that's exactly what it is.
One game. I've got to flush this game and move on to the next. I
just need not to over-think this."

As it played out, Bumgarner didn't need all that much backing as
he raised his record in May to 5-0, striking out 10 and allowing
just three hits as he blanked the Cardinals for seven innings. The
Cardinals broke through only in the eighth against lefthanded
reliever David Huff and righthander Juan Gutierrez when Jon Jay
cleared the bases with a three-run double and Allen Craig, driving
in a run for the ninth game in his last 10, doubled to score Jay.

The Giants raised their record to 36-19 while the Cardinals lost
for the fourth time in five games on this home stand, dropping to
just three games over .500 at 29-26.

Wainwright, who entered the game with a major-league best earned
run average of 1.63, hadn't been treated so shabbily since he gave
up nine runs in two innings in a 15-8 loss to Cincinnati last Aug. …